This metaphor compares their mouth to a desert. This means that either his mouth was too dry to say anything, or that no words would come out of his mouth just as their is not much in a sandy desert.
Answer:
1) The act or process of withdrawing, especially from something hazardous, formidable, or unpleasant.
Explanation:
We can see by how it's used in the passage that it's used as a verb, not as a noun, so we can eliminate 2. There's no military forces here, and this dog isn't retiring, so I'd say your best bet is 1, since the dog is withdrawing/retreating from the whip.
No, it should be The Importance of Being Earnest, in other words, A.
Dexter emphasizes the use of the word pretty during the final dialogue of Scott Fitzgerald's Winter Dream. This is because it is aggressive the insinuation of his interlocutor that the beauty of Judy is not such, since that beauty was the engine that drove his dreams of youth. The news of Judy's situation impacts him because he realizes that he can not go back in time and that in his current world there is nothing that could interest him or cause him the emotion he felt for Judy at the time.